So why does SURGE have a cool down?

Zanshin tactics? Why would it be overpowered without a cooldown?

I would remove the cool down, and give it a condition: it deactivates indefinitely after using it once, but reactivates after hooking a survivor.

But yeah, Surge doesn’t need a cool down because the only way it can affect a generator is if it’s not regressing already.

Downing multiple survivors, picking one up, hooking them, and being able to go and pick up the other survivor is something that should be rewarded because it’s on the survivor for putting themself in a bad position/his teammates for not reviving him in time.

As well as that, being able to hook a survivor and chain Thrilling Tremors by downing and picking up another in 16 seconds is definitely something that should be rewarded.

Surge has 4 conditions for activating:

1. Must down a survivor with a Basic Attack.
2. Must down a survivor within 32 meters of a generator.
3. Must not be on cooldown.
4. Affected generator(s) cannot be currently regressing or blocked.

For a perk that does very little damage to gens at only 8%, which can be repaired in about 5 seconds if a survivor was on said gen when it got hit with Surge, 4 conditions for its activation feels like a bit much honestly. If they just took out the basic attack requirement, or the cooldown, the perk would be much more useful overall.

With the Basic attack requirement gone, Killers with damaging powers like Huntress, The chainsaw boys, Oni, and Demogorgon (of whom the perk was coincidentally introduced with) would have much more utility with the perk, opening up its usefulness to a larger roster of killers and making it more universal. I've said this before: The "Down with basic attack" requirement didn't work for Infectious Fright, and it sure as hell isn't working for Surge.

Alternatively, removing the cooldown makes the perk activate more often on gens that aren't currently regressing, which in turn applies better pressure on larger maps, and delays survivors 5 seconds to repair the damage, buying more time for the killer to hook a survivor, and encouraging chased survivors to lead you away from the generators their allies are working on.

Surge's Primary strengths are that it saves the killer time on kicking gens, delays repair time by 5 seconds, and can affect multiple generators. In a 3 gen situation, this would be a major problem for the survivors if it weren't for the small amount of damage it does. I believe 3 gen situations and small maps are to blame for why the devs went overboard on creating the situational conditions for its activation; fearing that if they didn't, killers would be able to completely control the gens while hunting survivors, but in practice, surge rarely goes off on more than 1 gen at a time, and even if it does, its not like it applies enough damage to be regarded by survivors as anything more than a minor annoyance.

Overall Surge would still be an under powered perk if either of these 2 conditions were removed, but with just one of these QoL changes, Surge would be more appealing, useful, and far better compared to how it is right now. Personally, I would be fine with Surge's cooldown if the basic attack requirement was removed, because I feel that Basic attack requirement is the one that limits its usefulness too much, and makes it a garbage tier perk that's currently only useful on a small amount of killers instead of being universal to all of them.

I know you can't do it forever but you can still do it more than what the perk is balanced for and the snowball potential if it had no cooldown is stupid good.

The perk is balanced because the gens aren't already blocked when the perk is triggered, so the Survivors have the ability to play around it depending on what they are trying to accomplish. Removal of the cooldown prevents this after the first use.

Devs have some weird fetish for adding a drawback to weak perks.

That's not an issue BECAUSE it only effects gens that are not regressing.

If you down 2 people back to back then both downs will only give you additional value if either A: There is a 3rd/4th Survivor staying on a gen while you do this or B: If you've moved a significant distance before procing the perk again.

Now I'm not saying those are rare conditions, because they aren't. But usually that limits the 2nd proc to only 1 gen, with the other gens still regressing from the initial down. Useful? Yes. Overpowered? Definitely not.

But even then it's still not much regression, the value is pretty much exclusively coming from all of those OTHER benefits you keep trying to stress. Those benefits are decent yes, enough to make it a valid perk concept, but NOT enough to justify a cooldown.

Heck, it still wouldn't even be stronger than PGTW is outside of synergies. It would however at least allow it to be stronger WITH those synergies, which it should be by the nature of what a synergy is.

Even If it didn’t have a cooldown. i doubt zanshin tactics would be op